Analysis of Before Summer Rain

Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)



Suddenly, from all the green around you,
something-you don't know what-has disappeared;
you feel it creeping closer to the window,
in total silence. From the nearby wood

you hear the urgent whistling of a plover,
reminding you of someone's Saint Jerome:
so much solitude and passion come
from that one voice, whose fierce request the downpour

will grant. The walls, with their ancient portraits, glide
away from us, cautiously, as though
they weren't supposed to hear what we are saying.

And reflected on the faded tapestries now;
the chill, uncertain sunlight of those long
childhood hours when you were so afraid.


Scheme XXAX XXXX XAX XXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1001101011 101111101 11110101010 0101010111 11010101010 010111101 11100101 11111101010 11011110101 011110011 110011111110 001010101001 010101111 110110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 610
Words 103
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 3, 3
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 123
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 21, 2023

31 sec read
217

Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke — better known as Rainer Maria Rilke — was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. more…

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